Afghan girls from the all girls school in the Narang District, Konar province, Afghanistan, receive school and other supplies donated by the U.S. from the Narang District sub-governor in this Dec. 2007 photo. (Johnny Aragon/U.S. Army)
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials say almost a dozen civilians may have been killed by a coalition airstrike during a military operation in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday.
Kunar’s provincial governor, Shujaulmulk Jalalah, told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday that reports indicated as many as 11 civilians died and another 12 were wounded in the strike, which he said also killed two suspected insurgents. The reported airstrike occurred during an operation by Afghan security forces in Narang district, an especially volatile area of Kunar.
Officials with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said they could only confirm that a strike had taken place in Narang and said they were “currently looking into the circumstances of that operation.” An ISAF statement said no civilian casualties were reported during an airstrike earlier on Tuesday in Dangam district that reportedly killed one insurgent.
At least two children and two women were reported killed in Narang, and Jalalah said women and children were also among the wounded. This information was preliminary, he cautioned, as the area remained too dangerous for investigators.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an online statement in Pashto that he “strongly condemned” the attack and had ordered an official delegation to travel to the area to investigate.
Earlier this year, American officials admitted that at least two civilians were killed during a joint U.S.-Afghan operation when ground troops called in airstrikes on buildings used by militants as firing positions. Those strikes occurred on Jan. 15 in Parwan province.
But investigators with the Afghan government released a report accusing the United States of unilaterally carrying out the attack and of covering up additional civilian casualties caused by both the airstrikes and alleged house-to-house shooting by U.S. troops.
That report sparked more controversy when it was revealed that the Afghans had used some unsubstantiated evidence, as well as two photos taken years earlier, to try to prove their case.
Although deaths caused by foreign forces have decreased as the coalition withdraws its troops, statistics collected by the United Nations show, overall, civilian casualties have spiked as fierce fighting between Afghan forces and insurgents continues.
Zubair Babakarkhail contributed to this report.
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